Leaderboard

We had a busy sea day. There was a flurry of activities, all day long. We started with breakfast at the Windjammer and then walked the decks for a bit. It was very windy and cold as one would expect. We went to a lecture about Juneau which was a bit dry. Next up we went to the Cruise Critic meet up. Only 13 people of 27 showed up so most won prizes. I got to meet a fellow RCBlog follower there that I hadn't run into yet so it was fun. They had refreshment available. We ran over to Family Feud after that and it was packed. We had to stand in the back. We grabbed a bit of lunch and popped outside on deck 4 aft and found it to be more pleasant than our morning stroll. It was at that time we had our first whale sighting. They seemed to be surrounding us in the distance. We then went to the RCBlog Welcome Party where we met a few more from our group. The Flowrider was up and running after that so we went and watched a few crazy guys surf in the freezing cold. The Pub Crawl took place a little later. Annette warned the bars ahead of time so the would be prepared for us and I heard one bartender warn the next stop when we were heading out. The evening consisted of watching a movie, eating dinner and watching Finish That Lyric game show. I found that it was hard to see the mo e on the outside screen when it was light out. Tomorrow begins the port fun in Juneau.

Actually both Matt and I are very careful to be inclusive. My son isn't Diamond. I haven't even stepped foot in the Diamond lounge yet. Most people on this GC aren't diamond.

We arrived and our bags were outside our cabin. We moved bags in and then it was time for muster and then went to dinner. We had a 6:15 PM reservation for My Time Dining. While there was quite a line we got to our table in the Cascades dining room in a timely manner. We had the calamari and shrimp cocktail appetizers. Both were good though shrimp was small and only 4. We followed up with prime rib which was delicious and I had the pistachio ice cream for dessert which was very good. After dinner we roamed around the boat, unpacked, spent time on the balcony taking in the views as pulled out of Seward and then I made a donation at the casino at the blackjack table. We turned in pretty early with our 1st day of our 1st cruise under our belt. Again - this blog is priceless. I was answering people's questions and felt like I knew my way around enough to find most of the places. My sister-in-law and her husband were on the ship a few hours before us so they showed us around, too!

Formal night. Dinner in the MDR was the Duck. Both my son and I had it. (Sorry BigDuckRon). Great service and food. It was a very pleasant night and my son and I enjoyed a whiskey on the helipad after dinner. Soon after his Eastern based clock caught up to him again and he went down for the night. I wasn't ready for bed just yet and visited the Schooner Bar for some piano music. Did you notice out the windows how light it is? Official sunset this far North (approaching the Canada-Alaska border) was at 10:31pm PT. While still overcast with cloud cover it was bizarre having such long days to enjoy the ship after dinner.

Day 2 - Sea Day I awoke to my son making some noise in the cabin. His Eastern based internal clock was ticking. He, having crashed early the night before was ready to go earlier than I was. It was before 6am PT. Today is a sea day so lots of time to do sea day type things. Breakfast in the Windjammer opened at 6:30am so we headed up there just after opening time. After breakfast we explored the ship. I wanted to get some more helipad pictures away from port and at sea: I walked around various outside decks in search of wildlife. In the distance a couple of times I saw some whales but they were too far away to try to take pictures. Afternoon brought us back up to the Viking Crown Lounge (Dizzy's) for a Royal Caribbean Blog event with free drinks! At this event we got to have our cake and eat it too! This led directly into the pub crawl, which began at the... Pub. The pub on this ship is different from other pubs in the fleet. The bar area sits very near the entrance and it consumes a lot of floor space. Remarkably the beer is just as cold and it drinks the same so we went with it. There may be slightly more bar seating in this layout but less room in the rest of the pub to listen to entertainers and such. Matt scoping: After complimentary drinks at Dizzy's, I was close to seeing exactly how this next picture of Matt and Annette captured: Yet off we went to the Schooner Bar. Next up, R Bar. Rut Roh. Shooters in play. Shooter round two... Fireball! Time to head up to the Skybar. Elevator for 80 please... maybe two (or three). How many blog readers can you squeeze into an elevator? Okay I've gotta come clean here. Mrs Cookingyo: I didn't actually see Cookingyo eat pickles on the Adventure of the Seas. (You had to be there). Before we knew it it was 4:37pm when Matt realized it was Diamond happy hour. Enough said. #nodrinkpackage Formal night approaching the pub crawl was unofficially over.

OK....resizing pictures with the upload.... Here's a few from our arrival at the Pier in Seward. The train drops you steps away. Because we took care of Sea Pass card and registration at the train depot we go right through the security building, only scanning our carry on bags after a quick check of Sea Pass cards and passports. We have a "spacious balcony", cabin 9064. Plenty of room for the 2 of us and we are spending a lot of time on the balcony. Ask for extra blankets as soon as you meet your cabin steward!

I need to go on a GC ? It looks like so much fun!! Love the elevator pic that was just posted on the RCPeriscopers page too!

My son was exhausted from his early flight and coming from the East coast the 3 hour difference caught up to him so he went to bed. I saw the makings of a sunset through the overcast and found the deck 4 outer decks the only place to catch it. It was very cool and we had a strong wind so they closed the upper decks and helipad access. I grabbed this photo of the pool deck as I sought places to capture the sunset. Since I have the drink package my route between photo locations somehow included a bar along the path. Here is the Promenade as I made my way back down to deck 4. I am trying a new camera this cruise and decided to push the limits a bit to see what I could away with. This is a 1/3 second shutter speed trying to create some motion blur in the waves while hoping for a clear and steady picture of the ship. I think it turned out pretty good. Same trick looking aft. As the sun continued to set there were some lovely pastel colors presented in the mountains surrounding us on both sides of this passage between Canada to our North and America to our South. Combined with varying levels of cloud coverage it was very pretty. This was shortly after 9pm. Back inside I happened across "The Tavern" in the Boleros area on other ships. This is kind of a sports bar at times but also used for things like Karaoke. To the pub for a beer and some pub music. I ventured back outside and again did some experimenting with my camera. By this point the moon was out and combined with gaps in the cloud coverage it created some dramatic scenes. I ran into the @cookingyo s at the Schooner Bar and sat with them for a while. It was getting late and time for bed so I hopped in an elevator and made my way back to my cabin. Saturday already. Day one complete.

Found this just now...she looks great! @KLAconQueso and @AGSLC5...if you read through, OP said that cabins were not refreshed.....

Day 3 Morning - Entering Frederick Sound On our way for a noon arrival into Juneau we have entered Frederick Sound. Weather is typical Alaska weather, rainy and cold. Still very beautiful though. The mountains, even shrouded in clouds, have a beauty to them. We approached the Kake pilot station to pickup our local pilot who will stay on board for a few days and assist the bridge safely navigate. Here is the pilot in the bridge: Our progress so far... A lot of whales mostly in the distance. Some seals popped up close to the ship but they are fast it's hard to get pictures of them. Since we are doing a whale watching tour in Juneau later today I'm not spending a lot of effort trying to get many photos right now.

Twangster is pretty specific about who he will adopt, from a previous post he only considers pinnacle+. And you know you would end up being his camera mule don't you.

We are staying in an ocean view cabin, number 3612. The window is quite large and the room size isn't too bad either. I asked Jacki York at MEI Travel to have them separate the beds. It was done before we arrived to the room. The configuration makes it seem roomier and makes looking out the window easier. I don't regret booking this one.

Day 2 - cruising and Hubbard Glacier We slept great! Woke up early and had a latte from Cafe Latte-itudes before the 4 of us headed to the Windjammer for breakfast. Food was pretty good and then we headed back to the balcony to satisfy my need to see some birds. Saw some Surf Scoters and Tufted Puffins.... For lunch we went back to the Windjammer and then went to the front of the boat on Deck 12 to check out Hubbard Glacier. The captain does a great of explaining the glacier and the history of the area. Knowing that we would eventually see it again from our balcony we went back to our cabin and got some great views. The pictures just don't do it justice! As we started to pull out we got to watch a playful sea lion and got a so-so picture. Also caught a waterfall as we pulled away..... Captain said the trip up 2 days ago had a lot of fog so didn't have nearly as good a view as we had today.

These blogs are a lifesaver! We had a Voom package for 2 devices. We connected 2 phones and then couldn't figure out how to delete a device so I could connect the laptop. I git a quick response here - go to your web browser and enter "logoff.com". And tada! I'm online with the laptop. Note that I have difficulty uploading pictures from the camera. Suspect it's Voom. As a result I'm not posting as many pictures right now... will post more when the upload works better.... So, since the last update we got on the bus from the Egan Center in downtown Anchorage to the airport/train depot and had a great train ride to Seward. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking and the train slows down of some of the best ones. We saw 2 dall sheep, 3 moose but no bear.Waterfalls, lakes, rivers and glaciers abound! Here are some pictures I took from the train.

It is finally embarkation day. We started off at Biscuit Bitch a block over from the Moore Inn. I'm a simple gal so I got a Buttered Up Biscuit with maple peanut butter. It was pretty filling. We took an Uber to the cruise port. I had a code for a free first ride but didn't see anywhere to add the code. The ride was $10 plus tip. We chose to walk from the drop off point to the ship. It wasn't far. We checked out the Windjammer for lunch. We then went to the lava flow meet up where the bartender clearly did not anticipate making so many of the frozen Kraken drinks. He suspected correctly that a Caribbean cruiser was to blame. After muster we went to the spa raffle. Unfortunately a lot of people showed up and we did not win any prizes. The sail away party was a good time where we got to meet more group cruisers. It was fun today to see all the familiar shirts around the ship. It makes it feel like you have many friends. We got a little taste of the entertainment at the comedian's show. On the way out of the theater we stopped to listen to the piano player and stayed to see if our skills at music trivia were up to par. I should have jumped on a team. I knew the "hard one". It has been a other exhausting day. Thank goodness for a sea day tomorrow.

I wonder if anyone would notice if I were to use this as my silhouette in my sig line... As a seeeeeenior gold C&A member, I get first dibs on my oar and window.

If you were considering doing a B2B, would you? a - Stay on the same ship & cabin category? Why? b - Switch it up with the ships/cruise line and/or cabin category? Why? I'm curious as to others preferences and why. We might learn something new from one another !! Feel free to share your experiences !!

Think you will have to get in line. IIRC, there were offers before you ?

I'm able and willing lol... Cause I'm definitely not pinnacle lol! Jane

Radiance, south bound with pre cruise land tour (8B). Land part was was essentially flying into Fairbanks and taking the train down to Anchorage. At that point we seperated from the land group and instead of taking a bus to Seward we booked last minute on the train. Did plenty of excursions, none booked with the ship for the cruise part. On the land tour did I think three.

I'll be onboard this time in 7 days! Does anyone have any tips on how to provide photos on the live blog? Secondly, does Periscope cost when abroad?

And being there as a non-Diamond has got to be better than being stuck at home as a non-diamond ? @twangster it looks like a blast so far ?

The idea of a B2B is very appealing. I would stay on the same ship in the same stateroom if the itinerary changed. I wouldn't want to bother making a lateral move but I suppose on an Oasis class ship it might be interesting to be in Central Park for a week and then perhaps an ocean view. An exception to an itinerary change would be something like the Mariner GC. Unfortunately, it occurs in the heart of tax season. LOL I would consider hopping on another ship if it was an easy transfer. I guess it all depends on the ships and the ports.

WOW Chihuly Garden and Glass pictures are amazing!! I have only been to Seattle once, but I have family there now. I will be visiting soon and I must go to the Garden. I'm looking forward to your blog!!

kind of thought that but had to ask. So, no Eagles flying around with cell antennae. Pretty sure I'll go with a Voom drink package

That's the one!! I can't wait to watch this movie. Also, I was following a live blog that same week that that @Matt and others were on the GC. The couple got married on board and made comments here and there about certain things being closed off. Thing that makes me most excited is that they said they mentioned several times in the blog that they heard Kelsey Grammer (or his baby, can't remember now) next door to them. They (the live blog couple) were in 1724 that week. I didn't give it much thought at the time but after watching that trailer, I wonder if Kelsey Grammer filmed/stayed in 1722 next door. If so, that's our room in March! Maybe I'll see it on TV ?

Great photo's Twangster bot! ? We will have to wait to make diamond level before we join any group cruises, as we would like to have access to the same locations that you and Matt have. It would be weird to have us peaking through the doors where were not allowed. ??

That’s the film they were shooting when @Matt and a few others (@twangster?) were on board and even had a chance to be extras!

Love the moon pics !

Agree with the Top Tier ice show, seemed the skaters just turned up in their training gear, and the queues were massive, although once in there it didn’t seem full. We also overheard many others moaning in relation to the downturn in RC compared to previous cruises. ‘Overall we enjoyed the cruise, it’s just that each cruise before has been almost perfect, and this time around this problems I’ve already listed soured our experience, personally I’m hopeing that an Oasis style ships comes to Southampton in 2020, something that I heard onboard but have yet to hear for definite it’s happening.

Great photos Twangster!

Is that @crzycatldy5 there on the right? Face looks a lot like her profile pic. smh. "Pretty good", he says. Sir, those are not merely "pretty good", those are stunning and gorgeous!

I managed that cool camera technique by taking a screenshot on my phone, of a frozen scope. LOL I posted it on the rcperiscopers FB page.

Following! You always take amazing photos, Mr. @twangster, happy cruising to you and your son ? Alaska is on my bucket list, but I can’t afford it right now with three cruises booked between December 2018 and December 2019. Maybe RCB/MEI Travel will book another Alaska Group Cruise for either 2020 or 2021?

Cabin Tour! Interior Virtual Balcony, Cabin 9601

Day 1 - Seattle In the "things that make you go hmmm..." department, I noted the hotel ironing board was behind the cross bar to hang clothes on. You can't stand in front of it pass it under the bar (it hits your feet). It can't go over the bar (it hits the ceiling). Hmmm. Finally it's time to head down to the shuttle arranged by MEI Travel for the Group Cruise. On my way down the hotel hallway I passed a room and saw some luggage in the hallway with ship tags on them. Mind you this is the hotel before the cruise. I hope those people didn't leave thinking that just like on the last night aboard you put your luggage out in the hall and it is magically collected for you.

Enjoying the pics. The glass museum was my favorite thing i did in seattle after the traveling muppet exhibit at the pop museum. The lighting on ther glass was just beautiful. Thanks for taking me back! Jane

And I can confirm that Twangster is not a robot. He is a nice human.

Enjoy the cruise , as always will follow

Chihuly Garden and Glass I booked this as a combo with the Space Needle online the day before. It had me select a time for the Space Needle but Chihuly was available to walk in anytime. During the purchasing process it appeared Chihuly by itself was sold out but it was available to book as a combo for $44 plus tax. The two are located right next to each other. I had printed my ticket at home and it was a simple matter of following the signs and going straight to have it scanned without needing to stop at any ticket office. I took a lot of photos and it's been hard to narrow it down. It's getting late and I'm tired so I just going to dump the photos in this post and give it more thought another day. Ticket scanned you are quickly presented with your first exhibit. There are eight interior areas and then the outdoor gardens. This next section is the "Sea Room". There is the main piece in the center with smaller pieces around the outside of the room, each with intricate details. This leads to a whimsical corridor with a number of glass pieces overhead. There were hundreds of pieces each with intricate detail. The next room was incredible. What struck me was the detail in all aspects of every piece. This leads to the boat room with two boats filled with more pieces. Next up is the Chandelier Room. Following this is the Macchia Forest. Through the indoor sections it was time to move outdoors. There is a "Glass House" that was closed on this day for a private event. It's been hard to narrow down the 200 photos to these which is already more than I should have added. It's just hard to capture and present it trying to do it justice without going overboard with photos.

Free for Tmobile users. ?

I am onboard as we speak/post at 31993ft. NBD.

Welcome to the message boards! Be aware this is an independent site not affiliated with Royal Caribbean. I suggest you contact Royal Caribbean directly to verify your details based on citizenship and embarkation port.

Get an external memory drive for your phone, that's what I did for my wife, on one end it has a plug for the phone and the other end is USB so you can plug it in to a PC when we get back. Actually I think I did it more for her iPad instead of her phone, pad doesn't have much storage. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LSBMH1Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Day 4 - St Thomas Departure I had a 6pm MTD reservation but decided to skip it in favor of the sunset. Not a bad decision as it turns out. It started out pretty great but as the sun went down further it got a bit better. Looking back towards St Thomas with the Windjammer Al Fresco seating area: At this point the sun was below below the horizon but it begin to illuminate the clouds and I just couldn't stop taking pictures. As it became darker the colors became more vibrant. Show nearly over, I grabbed one more photo with the deck 12 slide in the foreground. These were all taken with an iPhone 8. I think they turned out okay.